Code Switching

Code Switching

            Code is a system of accepted laws and regulations that govern procedure or behavior in particular circumstances or within a particular profession but here in language code switching is something else .Code switching is the practice of moving back and forth between two languages or between two dialects or registers of the same language. Code switching (CS) occurs far more often in conversation than in writing. (Gumperz 1982:59) says about code switching that

“It is the juxtaposition within the same speech exchange of passages of speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or subsystems”

In linguistics, code switching is switching between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation. Multilingual people who speak more than two languages sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other. Thus, code switching is the use of more than one linguistic variety in a manner consistent with the syntax and phonology of each variety.

People interact with each other in more than one language, due to the factor of language contact a situation aroused which is called code mixing and code switching. This situation can lead towards the language interference in which a language is influenced by another language on the levels of semantics, grammar and phonology. A bilingual can talk to another bilingual in each language common between them. He can also use the words of one language into other, knowing that the listener understands the other language as well. Such kind of mixing is called code mixing.  Code mixing is also called conversational code switching. Code mixing takes place usually in spoken language as we are less conscious about our language and we have not much time to replace foreign words with native ones. We take it for granted that other person understands us. Code mixing is not only the mixing of words but clauses are also included in it, a part of sentence from one language and second part from other language, and in similar syntactic structured languages such as English and Spanish the grammatical inflexions are also mixed.  It is very much related to domains and situations. At a very formal situation bilinguals can use a mixed code of formal and informal variety in their leisure time.